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Do you use your kids' names as a password? Your pet's name, that you
talk about on your blog? You might want to rethink that strategy.
Seriously. I have a friend right now in shock because she had an
easy-to guess password. Someone hacked her gmail account. She lost
everything. This includes her email, her blogs (which were on Blogger,
owned by, who else? Google). What's more, her passwords were in a
folder, in her gmail account. So, the person who hacked her has it all.
She is left with nothing and is scrambling to undo the damage that can
be done all over the Internet. Meanwhile, she is locked out of
everything Google. Can you imagine? Another reason computing in the
Cloud has me a bit a-skeered...Google owns my life.
It is easy to get lax, but here's the deal, from me to you. If you
have a word from the dictionary as a password, change it, RIGHT NOW.
I'll wait. ...
...are you back? This is why: there are programs that just run
dictionary words and common numbers trying to hack your password. Make
no mistake, there are people out there, right now, as I write this,
trying to hack you. A combination of letters, numbers and upper and
lower case characters are the best chance you have to keep those out
who want in to your accounts. Go ahead, make use of that shift bar. Also, while I am on the subject, make a new password for every single service you use online. I know it's a pain, but this way, if someone gets into one, they don't necessarily get into everything.
I know, I know..it's hard to keep track of that many passwords, but
you have some options. If you are on a Mac, you have Keychain to help
you. You can store passwords, but also generate them as well. On a PC,
you can use Password Safe,
an application that you download and use locally. It creates files for
your passwords, and a master password to protect them all. What's more,
it is open source, so you don't pay anything for it. As for what you
find on the Internet, I would be very, very wary of any online password
meters. How do you know that your password is not being snarfed? Keep
it local! It's also smart to write those puppies down in case you have
a hard drive crash. This actually happened to me in July, and I lost
half of my passwords. Luckily, I did have most of them written down,
and backed up.
I don't want to hear that you have been hacked, so change that
password. Change it often. And store your passwords locally, not ONLINE
where they can be hacked. Your online identity, treat it the way you
would your bank information. Treat it the way you would your first born
child. Guard it.
Consider this my public service announcement to all of you. Much love. Peace out. Tina isn't as computer illiterate as you might think. Come see what other surprises are in store for you at her blog, Send Chocolate.
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